ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Well, another AGM has come and gone and I hope that those that attended found it informative and interesting. It commenced just after 11am and by 11.45 all the official business had been concluded, consequently, we spent the next hour or so discussing 'Any Other Business'.
   Just over 100 members attended in person whilst the remainder chose to vote by post - a significant difference from the days when the AGM dragged on for hours and was occasionally used as an instrument for abuse and disruption.
   In the past, many members attended who perhaps did not wish to be there, it was a simple choice; attend or be fined. Nowadays, members who attend the AGM are there because they choose to be, with the remainder wishing to vote by post. I believe that it adds rather than detracts to current AGM's because they are constructive and no one is coerced into attending, something, of course, that is their democratic right.

HEATHROW AIRPORT
I recently attended a meeting at Heathrow Airport together with representatives of the other radio taxi organisations where we were informed in no uncertain terms that the 'Radio Taxi' pickup points were going to be scrapped! Heathrow Airport Ltd (HAL) have recently appointed a new Ground Operations Manager and she is very keen to reduce any congestion - or indeed anything illegal - from occurring on any of the four terminals.
She and her team were very concerned about the amount of illegal touting that occurs on the terminals from the Radio Taxi pickup points. However, we are very confident that the majority of those who perpetrate these acts are not members of any radio circuit, in fact the authorities even know who they are! So, in my view it is more a matter of enforcement and the police and traffic wardens should be urged to uphold the law.
   It's all very well having rules and regulations, but if they are not 

enforced then they become absolutely worthless. At the meeting, it became apparent that there are many transgressions taking place at Heathrow, you only have to read the press to see that. It was just as apparent that there is a distinct lack of enforcement at the airport.
   We've all seen at times when a businessman arrives at the terminal, gets out of his car and is met by a driver who whisks his car off to have it parked for the duration of the businessman's trip. Then the reverse situation takes place on his return. It would appear, according to the meeting, that this whole operation is illegal and contravenes the bye laws at Heathrow - yet nothing done about it. Why not...?
   Why should the London taxi trade be the 'fall guys' and be removed from the forecourts when we give an excellent and legal service to our account clients?
   And the moral of this story? Well, if there are any of you out there at Heathrow doing anything that you shouldn't be as regards the 'Radio Taxi' pick up points, then please stop. Don't give the authorities the ammunition to criticise us.
   By the end of the meeting, HAL had changed their stance slightly and agreed to review the situation. There will be another meeting in the coming weeks; you will obviously be informed of the outcome.

RETAINING BUSINESS
You do not need me to tell you that there has been a downturn in the work compared to last year with many corporate accounts reviewing their expenditure and cutting back on their taxi usage wherever possible. Ironically, the downturn makes our excellent service even better than usual, as there is less street work available and more drivers chasing account work.

Please be extremely vigilant when dealing with our account clients, because there has been a movement of the goalposts during the past year with the ascendancy moving more in the client's direction. We are also still receiving some complaints from clients directed against some of our members; when we investigate those complaints it occasionally emerges that some of our members do silly things. Ok, it's nothing dishonest, but still enough to antagonise the client and give them something to complain about.
   As an example, imagine how the passenger may feel if he emerges from the account address - quite possibly in a hurry - and you are talking to your pal. The client identifies himself, gets into your cab and then has to wait while you finish your conversation! This type of incident - however petty - can make clients feel they are being ignored in addition to making them even later! I'm sure that you would probably feel just the same if the roles were reversed.
   Again, the moral of the story is to treat people as you would wish to be treated yourself. Do your best not to give clients grounds to complain about minor problems that with a little thought could easily be avoided; we need to protect what we have.

OLYMPIA
Some of you will already be aware that we had a stand at Olympia for three days at the Business Travel Managers Show. You can read about it in Mike Son's column in addition to seeing some of the 'action' on the centre pages.
   The show went very well for us and many new leads were generated with over eleven hundred people visiting our stand. It is also quite important that our existing clients can see that we have a presence at these high profile shows and it is fair to say that everyone of our top accounts visited our stand.
   All the staff and Board Members who were involved did an excellent job and all that remains now is for me and our Sales team to see how many new accounts will be directly attributable to the show.

Brian Rice